Saturday, April 21, 2007

Rockets Slam Adhamiya as U.S. Erects Wall

Six Katyusha rockets slammed into the Sunni-majority Adhamiya district, north of Baghdad, at two intervals Thursday evening, according to the Haqq Agency and eyewitness accounts. Two rockets struck at 6:30 p.m., one of which exploded at the commercial Omar bin Abdul Aziz Street, while the second hit the yard of the Abu Hanifa Mosque without exploding. About an hour later, during the call for sunset prayers, four other rockets hit several areas in the district but with no reports of injuries.

Adhamiya, a largely Sunni neighborhood and a stronghold for insurgents, had suffered from regular mortar and rocket attacks thought to be fired by Shi’ite militiamen in surrounding districts, often in retaliation to car bombings by Sunni insurgents against Shi’ite districts and marketplaces. The mortar attacks had ceased throughout most of the U.S.-led Imposing Law security operation, as U.S. and Iraqi troops manned several checkpoints, conducted raids in the area and occupied a long-abandoned police station in the center of the district, residents said.